The word plasticity has been derived from the word ‗plastos‘ meaning ‗capable of being molded‘. Basically, it is the ability of the brain and nervous system to change in response to experience or stimuli. Neuroplasticity is the capacity of the nervous system to modify its organization. It encompasses concepts such as learning, sensitization, and habituation, and implies changes in the way information is encoded or processed (Das et al 2000). A central dogma of early neuroscience was that the neurons of the adult brain do not change. However, modern neuroscience now recognizes that the brain can reorganize (this reorganization is called ―neuroplasticity‖) throughout life, not only in early childhood. Our brains rewire to create new connections, set out on new path, and assume new roles. (Schwartz,2003).One outcome of the discovery of neuroplasticity was a reasonable explanation for the puzzling ―phantom limb― syndrome. From the mid 19th century onwards, physicians have written very cautiously, to be sure about the fact that amputees sometimes feel pain in a limb that no longer exists. The conventional suspicion was that either doctor misinterpreted the symptoms or the amputee was seeking attention. However, neuroscientist V.S.Ramachandran showed that neurons that once received input from a vanished hand could rewire themselves to report input from the face. If an amputee‘s brain has not changed its mental map of the body after the amputation, she will experience those feelings as if they came from her vanished hand. (Schwartz,2003).
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